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Should I buy the HP Pavilion A250Y BTO ?
Does anyone have any advice? What are the pitfalls I might encounter?
It seems to have: 512M PC2700 DDR RAM - 4 slots, 2 used 3 PCI Slots 80G Hard Drive (5400) 16X DVD Drive 48X CDRW Drive On-board intel@Extreme 2 Video On-board Integrated 5.1 Sound (whatever that is) 2 USB Keyboard - scroller mouse Windows XP HOME Edition Corel Word Perfect NO PRINTER NO FLOPPY DISK DRIVE NO MONITOR NO SPEAKERS And - what does 'BTO' stand for? |
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And the processor it uses is what? I think BTO is Buy To Own, rather than
lease, or hire. The only parts I don't like from that system are the slowish HDD, the onboard video which wouldn't be much good for games (unless you don't play games) and the fact there is no floppy disk. Most of the time you can get away without a floppy, but once in about six months I've needed it for a motherboard flash update. ~ Adrian ~ |
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On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 12:31:38 GMT, "S.Heenan"
Rather than buy this HP, you might want to find a small local shop to build one from base parts for you. The hardware used in the HP is not very good compared to choosing your own. For instance: the 80GB hard drive of 5400RPM. Not a huge thing, but most drives sold in systems are 7200 RPM. Video card: a $45US Asus or similar video card will outperform built-in video.Where did you get those specs from ? Pricing ? Yes - from HP's site. |
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On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 14:11:50 GMT, "Adrian" wrote:
And the processor it uses is what? I think BTO is Buy To Own, rather than lease, or hire. The only parts I don't like from that system are the slowish HDD, the onboard video which wouldn't be much good for games (unless you don't play games) and the fact there is no floppy disk. Most of the time you can get away without a floppy, but once in about six months I've needed it for a motherboard flash update. ~ Adrian ~ |
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On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 13:35:13 GMT, CBFalconer
wrote: "S.Heenan" wrote: Rather than buy this HP, you might want to find a small local shop to build one from base parts for you. The hardware used in the HP is not very good compared to choosing your own. For instance: the 80GB hard drive of 5400RPM. Not a huge thing, but most drives sold in systems are 7200 RPM. Video card: a $45US Asus or similar video card will outperform built-in video. Where did you get those specs from ? Pricing ? Also it lacks serial and parallel output ports. A floppy drive is still essential, even if it doesn't get used too much. You should avoid XP like the plague; if you must have some form of Windoze get an earlier version without the horrible EULA and checking with Bill. Mount some form of Linux as your main OS. |
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wrote in message ... Does anyone have any advice? What are the pitfalls I might encounter? It seems to have: 512M PC2700 DDR RAM - 4 slots, 2 used 3 PCI Slots 80G Hard Drive (5400) 16X DVD Drive 48X CDRW Drive On-board intel@Extreme 2 Video On-board Integrated 5.1 Sound (whatever that is) 2 USB Keyboard - scroller mouse Windows XP HOME Edition Corel Word Perfect NO PRINTER NO FLOPPY DISK DRIVE NO MONITOR NO SPEAKERS That's about $750USD at the HP site. A similar setup like the following : ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK3700AMB w/ANTEC SMART POWER 350W P4/AMD POWER SUPPLY $65 Floppy drive $7 Gigabyte GA-7N400-L1, nForce2 Ultra400 chipset for Socket A w/Sound & LAN $90 AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ "Barton" 333 FSB PROCESSOR CPU- RETAIL $90 WD WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 80GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE MODEL # WD800JB - OEM $80 NEC/MITSUBISHI MultiSync FE770+ 17" (WHITE) FLAT SCREEN MONITOR - RETAIL $153 Lite On 52x24x52 Black CDRW Model LTR-52246 OEM $40 Lite On 52x Cd Rom - Model LTN-526 -RETAIL $19 CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB 64x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM - OEM 184-Pin, CL=2.5-Unbuffered Non Parity 2.5V, CT6464Z335 Requires DDR $73 MSI AGP Video card Geforce Fx 5200 Model X5200-T64 Retail $71 Windows XP Home $93 Logitech BLACK SBD69 Corded Optical Wheel Mouse PS/2 $12 Keyboard $13 Total: $806USD A few bucks more, but much better components, upgradeable, and a monitor to boot. |
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On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 17:55:47 GMT, "S.Heenan"
wrote: THANKS! That's about $750USD at the HP site. A similar setup like the following : ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK3700AMB w/ANTEC SMART POWER 350W P4/AMD POWER SUPPLY $65 Floppy drive $7 Gigabyte GA-7N400-L1, nForce2 Ultra400 chipset for Socket A w/Sound & LAN $90 AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ "Barton" 333 FSB PROCESSOR CPU- RETAIL $90 WD WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 80GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE MODEL # WD800JB - OEM $80 NEC/MITSUBISHI MultiSync FE770+ 17" (WHITE) FLAT SCREEN MONITOR - RETAIL $153 Lite On 52x24x52 Black CDRW Model LTR-52246 OEM $40 Lite On 52x Cd Rom - Model LTN-526 -RETAIL $19 CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB 64x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM - OEM 184-Pin, CL=2.5-Unbuffered Non Parity 2.5V, CT6464Z335 Requires DDR $73 MSI AGP Video card Geforce Fx 5200 Model X5200-T64 Retail $71 Windows XP Home $93 Logitech BLACK SBD69 Corded Optical Wheel Mouse PS/2 $12 Keyboard $13 Total: $806USD A few bucks more, but much better components, upgradeable, and a monitor to boot. |
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Why not? That system you outlined sounds good, except that I would
choose 2 256 meg sticks of PC2700 ddr ram(or possibly 2 512 meg sticks?) to use with the nForce2 motherboard. The nForce2 motherboards perform much better when a matched pair of ram sticks are used. I would also choose a DVD drive rather than a CDrom drive for just a few dollars more. If the user wants to use dial up internet service, they would also have to buy a modem. "S.Heenan" wrote: wrote in message ... On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 17:55:47 GMT, "S.Heenan" wrote: THANKS! You're welcome. BTW, I didn't mean to suggest "Pick these components from Newegg." I just wanted to give you an idea of what's available for x number of dollars. |
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